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Mnuchin: Losing human jobs to AI "not even on our radar screen"

Stef W. Kight / Axios

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin joined Axios' Mike Allen this morning at the debut of his News Shapers event series to talk about his new role in the Trump Administration.

On AI supplanting human jobs: "it's not even on our radar screen.... 50-100 more years" away. "I'm not worried at all" about robots displacing humans in the near future, he said, adding: "In fact I'm optimistic."

Self-driving lab head urges freeze after "nightmare" fatality

Uber self-driving car in Pittsburgh. Photo: Jeff Swensen / Getty

Carmakers and technology companies should freeze their race to field autonomous vehicles because "clearly the technology is not where it needs to be," said Raj Rajkumar, head of Carnegie Mellon University's leading self-driving laboratory.

What he said: Speaking a few hours after a self-driven vehicle ran over and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, Rajkumar said, "This isn't like a bug with your phone. People can get killed. Companies need to take a deep breath. The technology is not there yet. We need to keep people in the loop."

Why it matters: Virtually every major car company on theplanet, in addition to numerous startups and tech companies, are doing live testing of self-driving vehicles — and pushing policy officials to allow them to do so.

But Rajkumar said that ordinary people in addition to automakers and tech companies have developed far too much trust in self-driving technology simply because the cars have driven hundreds of thousands of miles with only one fatality before this — a Tesla driver who slammed into the side of a truck last year.

Quote "This is the nightmare all of us working in this domain always worried about."

Palestinian president calls U.S. ambassador "son of a dog"

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas personally attacked U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman today, calling him a "son of a dog" during a speech at his Fatah party meeting. The U.S. State Department has condemned his rhetoric as "outrageous and unhelpful."

Why it matters: This is another escalation in Abbas's rhetoric against the U.S. since President Trump's Jerusalem announcement. In another speech two months ago, Abbas went on a personal attack against Trump himself and told him to "go to hell".

Abbas's attack came in response to statements by Friedman about Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. In his speech Abbas said Friedman and his family are "Settlers" themselves.

Abbas's rant against the Trump administration also shows that all efforts made by the White House through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Arab countries to reduce tensions with Abbas and convince him to resume talks with the U.S. have failed.

It was also further proof that he has decided to set a collision course with the Trump administration and refuse to engage with Trump's peace plan.

Friedman, who is the most hard line member of the Trump "peace team", criticized the Palestinian leadership publicly several times in the last few months. Several hours before Abbas's attack, Friedman wrote on his twitter account that the Palestinian leadership has refrained from condemning the latest terror attacks against Israelis.

Friedman reacted to Abbas's attack in a speech in Jerusalem: "Anti-Semitism or political discourse, not for me to judge. I leave that to you".

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu defended Friedman in a statement: "Abu-Mazen's lashing against U.S. ambassador David Friedman says it all. For the 1st time in decades the U.S. government has stopped spoiling the Palestinian leadership and is telling them enough is enough. I guess the shock from hearing the truth make the Palestinians lose their senses".

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert:

"President Abbas’s comments were outrageous and unhelpful. We urge the Palestinian Authority to focus its efforts on improving the lives of the Palestinian people and advancing the cause of peace. The Administration remains fully committed to those goals."

U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt:

"The time has come for President Abbas to choose between hateful rhetoric and concrete and practical efforts to improve the quality of life of his people and lead them to peace and prosperity. Notwithstanding his highly inappropriate insults against members of the Trump administration, the latest iteration being his insult of my good friend and colleague Ambassador Friedman, we are committed to the Palestinian people and to the changes that must be implemented for peaceful coexistence. We are finalizing our plan for peace and we will advance it when circumstances are right."